


Mistletoe and Springwine

by captainraz



Series: Deep Dish Nine [1]
Category: Deep Dish Nine - Fandom, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Christmas, Deep Dish Nine, Deep Space Nine AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-29
Updated: 2014-04-14
Packaged: 2018-01-06 14:34:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1108004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainraz/pseuds/captainraz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Odo is being a grump at the Deep Dish Nine Christmas party. Kira attempts to inject some seasonal goodwill into her friend, with unexpected consequences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Christmas Party

_Mistletoe never causes anything but trouble_ , thought Odo bitterly.  The Deep Dish Nine and Quark’s bar joint Christmas party was in full swing, and Bashir was busy trying to coax Leeta and the Dax sisters to kiss him using the festive foliage scattered around the place. _Evidently his burgeoning romance with Mister Garak doesn’t yet require exclusivity. Or Mister Bashir is inebriated enough that he has forgotten all about Mister Garak._

 

Odo was, as per his custom, stood in the corner observing the proceedings with his arms folded imperiously.  He was waiting for the inevitable moment he would be required to break up a scuffle or escort an inebriated employee back to their place of residence. Which for most of them was only upstairs, thankfully.

 

Bashir had apparently given up his quest for romance in favour of raiding the buffet table.  Even Odo with his spare appetite could appreciate the festive spread. Sisko had insisted on catering the event himself and had provided three groaning tables of every kind of nibble and appetiser imaginable. And quite a few that only Sisko could have imagined. Quark had provided the drinks, for a very reasonable price, which was why Odo was avoiding the drinks table. Not that there was much available for a teetotaller such as himself.

 

Quark had managed to park himself underneath one of the many sprigs of mistletoe and was nearly catatonic with joy as the Dax sisters stroked an ear each, matching wicked grins on their faces. Odo was so busy harrumphing his disapproval at the lewd display that he completely missed the person sidling up to him.

 

“Do you disapprove of fun in general, or just when it involves Quark?” said a quiet, teasing voice near his ear. Odo nearly jumped out of his skin, but relaxed when he realised it was Kira.

 

He smiled and nodded in her direction by way of greeting. “In my experience it’s best to disapprove of anything involving Quark. It’s probably illegal somewhere in the world.”

 

She smiled at him. “You’re probably right, but can’t you let him have his fun this once? It is Christmas.”

 

“I don't see why I should let him get away with breaking the law simply because of the time of year." He made a noise of disgust in his throat and Kira shot him an admonishing look. Eager to get onto to more even conversational terrain, he cleared his throat and blatantly changed the subject.

 

"I didn't know you celebrated Christmas, Kira,” said Odo, keen to steer the subject away from the Ferengi barkeep. She shrugged at him.

 

“I don’t really, I much prefer the Bajoran holidays I grew up with. Christmas sort of rubs off on you when you work with so many Terrans and a pair of Trill who are obsessed with any holiday involving food, booze and dressing in ridiculous outfits.” Kira rolled her eyes and Odo allowed himself a small chuckle.

 

“I suspect the opportunity for romance and mischief also contributes to the obsession,” said Odo casting a disdainful look at Jadzia, who was busy waving mistletoe in Worf’s face and trying to get him to kiss her. Kira grinned into her drink.

 

“I don’t think you’re wrong there. Besides, you don’t turn down a party invite when Benjamin is putting on a buffet. Jadzia cornered you for a kiss yet?” Odo frowned.

 

“I’m not sure she’d dare.”

 

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that; another glass of Sisko’s eggnog and I reckon she’d be brave enough to kiss Weyoun.” Odo snorted at the mental image and Kira’s smiled widened. “What would it take to get you to plant a festive kiss on someone?”

 

“The end of the world perhaps.” Kira frowned at him.

 

“If you’re so against this kissing malarkey you probably shouldn’t stand under a sprig of mistletoe all night.” The tone of Kira’s voice was lightly teasing and for moment Odo considered responding with the dour manner that would be expected of him, before electing to try something else entirely.

 

“I could simply be waiting for someone game enough to try,” Odo said softly, carefully laying the bait. Kira gave him a look that was equal parts surprise and pleasure at his answer.

 

“Well, you could wait until Jadzia’s had another glass of eggnog…” She turned away a moment to place her glass on the nearest table. “Or I’m here right now," she said, shooting him a grin that was part challenge and part flirtation.

 

A measure of nervousness flickered through Odo's body before he resolutely pushed it aside; here was an invitation to do something he'd wanted to do for far too long without any recriminations and he was determined to make the most of it. He stepped closer to Kira, flashing what he hoped was a flirty smile.  Gently he slipped one arm round her waist to rest on the small of her back, the other cupping the back of her neck.

 

Slowly he lowered his lips to hers, gently exploring. He wasn't really sure what he was doing, but he'd spent enough enough time dreaming about this that he was able to push his doubts aside. Whatever he was doing seemed to be going down well as Kira responded warmly, her arms slipping around him and holding tight.

 

A small thrill shot up Odo's spine at the way Kira was responding to his kiss; she wasn't passively receiving (though really, when was Kira ever passive about anything?) and her response wasn't merely polite and friendly. There was something more there, he could feel it. Odo smiled against her lips and dipped her ever so slightly, loving the way she seemed to trust him.

 

Odo pulled her back upright and reluctantly pulled away. Kira's face was flushed and she had a dreamy sort of smile on her face. Odo knew that he must have some sort of awestruck look on his face as he struggled to regain his breath. He smiled at her.

  
"Merry Christmas Nerys," he said, his voice little more than an intimate whisper.  She returned the sentiment and retrieved her glass, returning to the party that had raged on around them seemingly oblivious. Hope flared in his chest and as he looked at her retreating back he thought happily; _maybe mistletoe isn't so bad after all_.


	2. The Morning After

It was not, generally speaking, a good thing to be stuck at work when you were the most hungover you could remember being in a long time. Nevertheless, stuck at work Kira was, even though it was the day after the staff Christmas party and it felt like a pair of sinoraptors were battling over a three week old carcass inside her head.

 

"Ben, what on earth did you put in that eggnog last night?" she asked, her voice little more than a plaintive moan. Fortunately, her boss appeared to be in a similar painful situation.

 

"Not enough egg and far too much nog, evidently," he replied with a grimace. Kira shook her head to clear the odd image that conjured, before the rising nausea made her stop.

 

"Oh well, that probably explains it,” she muttered under her breath.

 

"Explains what?” asked Ben with a puzzled look on his face. Kira felt her face grow warm and she knew a blush was forming. She hadn’t meant for Ben to hear her, but now that he had, maybe he could help her sort out some of the odd things she’d been thinking and feeling.

 

"Last night, at the Christmas party..." Kira faltered, and Ben looked at her with a mixture of expectation and concern. "I'm sorry Ben, I'm not really sure if I should talk to you about this. It's kind of, well, personal. And I don't really want Dax- either Dax- finding out." Sisko smiled kindly.

 

"Nerys, you have my word that anything you tell me in confidence will stay between you and me." he said softly before chuckling a little to himself. "Besides, if something personal happened at the Christmas party, chances are Jadzia already knows about it." Kira laughed.

 

"She probably does at that," she said. "Last night, I... Odo... we.. well, we kissed." Sisko's eyebrows made a bid for his non-existent hairline.

 

"Well there _was_ a lot of mistletoe about. I take it from your tone of voice that it wasn't just a friendly peck on the cheek?"

 

"No it wasn't," said Kira quietly. "It was... gentle, passionate and very definitely not friendly. Ben, I think Odo has feelings for me. Romantic ones." To Kira's great surprise and annoyance, Sisko burst out laughing.

 

"You've only just worked that out?" He seemed greatly amused at Kira's personal epiphany, while she just stared at him, her mouth wide open in astonishment.

 

"You knew?"

 

"Everyone knows. We have done for months, if not years."

 

"How? How the hell does everyone know about this but me? What in the name of the Prophets has he been doing that everyone but me has noticed?"

 

"Nerys, he doesn't eat."

 

"So?"

 

"He doesn't eat our food and yet he comes in every day at twelve o'clock on the dot to order a raktajino I'm fairly certain goes in the trash once he leaves."

 

"It's probably just part of his patrol. He comes in to regain some measure of sanity after he's been to harass Quark..."

 

"He comes here _before_ he makes his daily visit to Quark. And you should see the look of acute disappointment on his face when you're not in. It's really quite endearing. But if you're at the register his entire face lights up. I wouldn't be surprised if coming to see you was the highlight of his day."

 

As much as it was a surprise to her, what Ben was saying made a lot of sense; you could set your clock by the time of Odo's visits, and she'd always thought it curious that he never bought any food despite coming in at the start of the lunchtime rush. Still, Kira wasn't quite done with being angry at herself for not working it out sooner, or at her friends and co-workers for not saying anything.

 

"Why did none of you say anything? I'd have thought that Jadzia, shameless gossip that she is, would have said something. In fact I'm astonished that she's not been winding me up about it since she first found out."

 

"It wasn't our place to say anything, it was Odo's. Anyway, I figured that if you couldn't see what was in front of you it was your loss." Kira ignored the good natured barb.

 

"How much did you have to give the Old Man to keep her quiet?" she asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciouly. Sisko smiled at her fondly.

 

"Contrary to popular belief, Dax is much, much more than the best source of gossip this side of the wormhole. She's also a good friend. I suspect she knows far more about the depth of Odo's feelings for you than anyone else and elected to keep quiet based on that."

 

Kira grew quiet, trying to process that more or less everyone she knew had worked out Odo had romantic inclinations towards her long before she had. Even more startling was the revelation that Jadzia had known a piece of prime gossip and kept it to herself. That coupled with the fact Ben had suggested people had known for years threw up lots of questions about the depth of the feelings Odo had for her. All of a sudden Kira felt a little out of her depth. She was drawn from her reverie when Ben nudged her arm gently.

 

"Hey, you ok?" Kira nodded, though she wasn't truly sure that she was ok.

 

"There's an awful lot to process," she said.

 

"Can I assume from your reaction that your feelings for Odo might be less than platonic as well?" Kira nodded at him.

 

"It never really occurred to me until last night to think of Odo as anything other than a friend. I'm still processing the feelings generated by one of the best kisses I've had in my life when I find out Odo might have been in love with me for years. I don't know how to deal with that." 

 

"You'll deal with it the way you normally deal with things; head on, with absolutely no subtlety and possibly one or two explosions."

 

Kira shoved her boss hard but she was grinning again. Ben was absolutely right; the best way to tackle this was head on, and to do that she needed to talk to Odo again. What did it matter if he liked her a lot more than she liked him? Wasn't that how most of her romantic relationships had started out anyway? Odo was a friend, and she trusted him. Whatever they ended up being to each other, she knew they would be alright. Right now though, she was mostly concerned with engineering a situation in which she could kiss him again. Suddenly, a solution presented itself to her.

 

"Ben, I know what we're going to do," said Kira with a mischievous grin. Sisko raised his eyebrows.

 

"We?"

 

"Yes, we. We're going to have a New Year's Eve party."

 

"Let me get this straight. You want to organise a New Year's Eve party while we're still nursing our hangovers from the Christmas party?" Kira nodded at her boss, grinning madly. "You're ridiculous."

 

"I know, that's why you love me. Come on Ben, this is perfect." She fixed her boss with her very best puppy dog expression.

 

"Fine, I'll help you organise a New Year's party. But the cost of the booze is coming out of _your_ pay check." Kira gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

 

"Thanks Ben, it'll be a great party, you'll see."

 

The bell tinkled as the door opened and a bright and distinctly not hungover voice asked: "Did I hear someone say the word party?"

 


	3. New Year's Eve

The New Year's Eve party was unfolding in much the same way as the Christmas party had, only with  less mistletoe. Bashir was being better behaved this time, no doubt owing to the presence of his significant romantic other. Whatever you thought about Elim Garak, you couldn't deny that his mere presence brought a certain class to a room. Both Dax sisters  looked relieved that Julian wasn't chasing them with winter foliage.

 

_It's almost a shame there's no mistletoe_ , Kira thought, _I could do with some plant life to help me in my quest_. She looked down at her drink a little regretfully. Or maybe some Dutch courage. She waved away the temptation to get a stronger drink, knowing that she needed to be sharp for... whatever might happen tonight.

 

Kira was using the party as a cover for an intimate conversation with Odo. And with a bit of luck that conversation would lead to a second mind blowing kiss as the clock struck midnight. At least that was the plan; the parties Kira was used to attending were notorious for not going according to plan. And parties that had organisational input from Jadzia Dax almost never went according to plan. Dax had come in at the tail end of Kira's conversation with Sisko and had heard only one word of interest; party. She had insisted on helping with organisation and Kira had been too hungover to argue.  By the end of the shift both Kira and Sisko had completely given up and more or less put Jadzia in charge of the whole thing.

 

Having Dax on board had been a blessing. She'd worked out a deal with Quark for the drinks that had left Kira wondering whether they were stolen.  She had somehow persuaded Sisko to let them use his apartment as the venue. The only downside to having Jadzia on board had been her constant gossip mongering.

 

At first she'd been subtle,  dropping hints about an "interesting rumour" she'd heard. Jadzia should have known better than to expect Kira to take that bait; she'd never been particularly interested in idle gossip the way Dax had. When it had become evident that subtlety wasn't going work, Jadzia had become more obvious, and also more annoying. Eventually Kira had snapped and demanded that Jadzia simply come out with it. It was at this point she'd learned that Quark had been a witness to the incident at the Christmas party. He claimed that he'd told only Jadzia, who had sworn him to absolute secrecy. Since Dax was the only one asking when she and Odo were going to get together, it would seem that Quark had in fact kept his mouth shut.

 

Kira was drawn from her reverie as she caught sight of Jadzia and Quark whispering in the corner. Dax noticed Kira's disapproving gaze and looked over to where Odo was standing, her meaning obvious. He had taken up his usual Constable pose; arms crossed, observing the proceedings. Dax, wanted her to go over and say hello. Kira scowled, which caused the pair of them to waggle their eyebrows in a suggestive manner. She sighed, taking the hint and sidling over to where Odo was, hoping in vain that he hadn’t noticed the less than subtle exchange.

  
  


"What are those two up to?" he asked as soon as she was within earshot.

 

"Planning our wedding and the names of our children," said Kira with not an insignificant amount of annoyance. At Odo's puzzled look she continued. "We weren't quite as discreet at the Christmas party as we thought we were."

 

"I was beginning suspect as much," said Odo. "Quark has taken to leering at me over the past week, more than usual I mean. I'm sorry if Jadzia has been giving you a hard time because of me."

 

"Don't worry about it Odo," said Kira gently. "Dax hasn't been too much  of a pain, and I seem to recall I had some input into what happened."

 

Odo ducked his head to indicate that, while he didn't completely agree with her, he knew Kira had a point. Kira risked a glance in the direction of the scheming Trill and Ferengi; they were stood with their arms crossed, smiling at Kira and Odo. Kira decided she'd had enough and jerked her head in the direction of the kitchen. Unusually for a party, the kitchen was empty and offered at least the illusion of privacy. If she was honest with herself,  Kira just wanted to get away from Dax's waggling eyebrows. Odo nodded his head in acquiescence followed her into the next room and settled against the counter.

 

"Don't be too  hard on Quark and Jadzia, Odo, they might be annoying but I don't think they've told anyone. As far as I know the only person who knows about it apart from them is Benjamin, and I told him myself." Odo looked a little startled at that.

 

"You told Mr Sisko about our kiss?" he asked. Kira nodded.

 

"He helped me work out a few things," she said slowly before taking a steadying breath.  This was it; time to either take the plunge or forget all about that intoxicating kiss from Christmas. The whole reason Kira had organised this party was so she could take the plunge. She screwed up her courage and continued. "Odo, how long have you been in love with me?" she asked softly.

 

Odo closed his eyes and took several breaths as he seemed to struggle with something. Eventually he seemed to come to a decision and opened his eyes, looking at Kira with unashamed tenderness. "Too long; not long enough. Does it really matter how long I've loved you? It doesn't change the fact that I do."

 

Kira gently took his hand. "I just wondered how long I'd been a fool, not noticing things that other people did. Ben said it was obvious. I'd like to be able to say I've loved you as long as you've loved me but I never really thought of you romantically until the Christmas party." Odo glanced down at their their hands and then back at her face, and Kira could see the hope flaring in his eyes. She plunged on, determined to get everything out. "I have absolutely no idea where this might end up. And to be honest its a little terrifying starting something when you're so much more invested than I am. But you're a good man, and you're my friend. I'm not a complete fool, I know a good thing when I see it. I'd like to see where this goes."

 

At first Odo looked completely stunned at what Kira had just said, but then a slow smile started to spread across his face. Kira thought she could count on one hand the number of times she'd seen Odo smile and she decided that she would try to make him do it more often. His face positively lit up with the joy he felt at her words, and his face became radiantly beautiful. Kira found that her breath caught in her throat.

 

"You're absolutely certain you want to do this. With me?" asked Odo, his tone somehow serious despite the grin that was fighting to take over his face.

 

Kira managed to arrange her features in an approximation of her annoyed face. "Odo, I set up this party so that I'd have a chance to have this conversation with you, and so I could kiss you at midnight. I wouldn't have gone to all that trouble if I wasn't absolutely certain."

 

Odo pulled her to his chest and wrapped his arms around her. "Just checking," he said happily. "I want to do this properly. I want to take you out for a proper first date at some point."

 

"Later," murmured Kira, snuggling into his shoulder. "Midnight kisses first, first date logistics later."

 

He looked like he was about to say something, but before he could open his mouth Kira heard the unmistakable sounds of a scuffle. They turned at the same time and saw Quark and Jadzia making a swift retreat from where they'd been peeking round the kitchen door. Kira put on her best rage face and went after them to give them a piece of her mind.

 

The rest of the evening passed in a blur of shouting at Jadzia, drinking beer and shooting knowing glances across the room at Odo. Before Kira knew it she was loudly counting down to midnight one arm through Odo's and the other through Jadzia's. When the clock struck midnight Dax completely surprised her by planting a huge, wet and lingering kiss on her lips, much to the amusement of anyone not caught up in a kiss. Jadzia gave her a mischievous and entirely knowing look as she pulled away, and the Odo was taking her place.

 

He pulled her into a sweet and insistent kiss that left Kira, and anyone watching them,in absolutely no doubt about his feelings. She could vaguely hear a chorus of whoops and cheers, led by Quark and Jadzia, of course. She decided dealing with everyone else could wait until later. Odo's lips were warm and soft and full of promise for what was to come. As she deepened the embrace Kira thought happily, _mistletoe really isn't all that bad_.


End file.
